Celebrities are valued for their talents and wealth, so much so, that many people look to them for advice on unrelated matters. This has led to many celebrities to have their opinions valued on topics like sports, politics and social issues.
Recently NFL and NBA players, like Russell Wilson and Lebron James, respectively, advocated for voting in this recent election to motivate citizens to get out and make their voices heard.
While there could have been other factors that came into play with record voting numbers many people like Trevor Zahn, the sociology teacher, believe these athletes played a huge role.
Zahn claims that these aspects of society has to do with the more idolized society that America has. “We have heroes and the whole concept that we support our heroes and love our heroes and that we don’t find fault in some of them in some cases,” commented Zahn.
America sees athletes and other celebrities as heroes, especially when many of them go on to support their communities . This leads the American society to place their faith and trust in these celebrities, causing instances where celebrities are asked about their opinions on completely unrelated topics. “They haven’t demonstrated they are an expert in the area, but you are still going to get their opinion because people are going to follow it,” said Zahn. There have been many examples of this circumstance in the past summer.
Leaders in society know that celebrities are viewed as heroes so many are brought out to influence their following toward social issues or politics. Celebrities came out in support for Donald Trump like Kayne West and Brett Farve. Others came out in support for Joe Biden like Chris Evans and Selena Gomez. Other celebrities came out in major support for the organization Black Lives Matter (BLM) like Lebron James and the rapper Drake. All of these celebrities have used their popularity to influence topics that they don’t specialize in and many tend to donate or make appearances at rallies to demonstrate their support. Drake donated $100,000 to BLM along with The Weekend.
In each of these cases, these celebrities do not specialize in the topic at hand, and if they were an average citizen, not many people would care. However, due to their status, their opinions are brought out and spotlighted for the American people.
Senior Ben Curran notes how productive it is for politicians to show which celebrities support them. “Whether you like it or not, the American people care about who celebrities support. It is crucial to their campaign that they showcase who supports them,” stated Curran.
Celebrities have a major influence on a vast number of topics in American society. This is due to the “hero worship” that takes place a lot within our culture. No matter the topic, if the American people care about it, they want celebrities to state their opinion on the matter.
